The most helpful favourable review

The most helpful critical review

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 starsThe perfect read for girls aged 7 -11
The life of a young girl called Celia is interworven with her grandmother's life, also called Celia, who has come to live with her grand-daughter and her family. Grandmother Celia begins to tell Celia about her childhood memories of her experiences with fairies and Celia,herself, begins to meet her own fairies.

The life of a young girl called Celia is interworven with her grandmother's life, also called Celia, who has come to live with her grand-daughter and her family. Grandmother Celia begins to tell Celia about her childhood memories of her experiences with fairies and Celia,herself, begins to meet her own fairies.

I read this book myself, and I enjoyed it but I can also see my 9 year old daughter enjoying it too. She is too old for the Rainbow Fairies and this is the perfect book for her to read. I found myself loosing myself in the story and its fantasy world.

There are underlying themes of love, friendship and loyalty and these are important in the world today.

I would recommend it as a good book for girls aged 7-11 years and would be great to share in a class or between friends, a great book to read to children at bedtimes - i am sure they would have great dreams, dreaming about the fantasy world within.

It's a fairy kinda thing. You'd have thought I'd have had enough ofthem by now what with the infestation we experienced in The Wolf Cavelast Autumn about which I shared some thoughts in my recent review ofSigne Pike's entertaining book 'Faery Tale : One Woman's Search ForEnchantment In A Modern World' but here they are again, febrile andall aflutter, to embroider yet another story of enchantment, adventureand skullduggery, this time within the pages of Karen McQuestion'sfine novel 'Celia and The Fairies'. It is a simple but entertaining read.

Celia's Grandmother comes to stay and it is clear from the outsetthat the old girl has more than a little prior knowledge of the tinyfolk and their wily ways. The dastardly Vicky McClutchy (move overCruella de Ville, you have competition!) has designs on taking overCelia's parents' toy company by means unfair and foul and it fallsyou our young heroine to save the day with help from her otherworldlyfriends and a magic flute (move over Mozart!). Head-honcho fairy Mira(an interfering and somewhat self-aggrandising sprite, so typicalof her kind) enlists the help of Celia to put the world to rights andsave the day. The plot is well-managed and easy to follow and passedthe "read-out-loud" test with flying colours. Little ones will love it.

I'm done with fairies for a while now; trolls may well be my next thing!

I read this in one evening, I am way above the target age range though!This is about a little girl Celia and how when her Grammy comes to live with her family she is told about Fairies in the woods behind her house, her other family tell her not to listen. There is drama galore and it is written in a simplistic way because of the target age range. The book is not very long but longer than say the Rainbow Fairies books I guess. It is very well written and I recommend it.

I've always felt disappointed that there weren't enough actual fairies in fairy tales, it was all princesses and kings and queens. If fairies did appear, it was always the far too sugary tales of groups of fairies getting together and not the classic stories involving humans and fairies.

Celia and the Fairies fills that gap nicely and with an excellent modern take on the classic fairy story managed to impress both myself and my daughter.

My 7 year old is really in to her reading now and took to the book straight away. She was very impressed with the story and felt that she could relate to Celia, the girl who finds herself coming face-to-face with fairies once her grandmother comes to stay.

The story feels both modern and timeless at the same time, thanks to the back-story about Celia's father and his problems and the grandmother relating her own fairy experiences with Celia. It's well written and, though there are some difficult words, fairly straight-forward for an average 7-8 year old to read by themselves.

The other important aspect of this story is that it doesn't talk down to the audience or dumb the story down for younger readers. This may also be another reason why it seems so timeless.

The small girl to whom I read this story was quite young for it (at seven), but she was prepared to sit and listen and seemed to enjoy the first couple of chapters.

Then came a long passage where the grandma was telling her story and the lead character in the story kept interrupting her. This was annoying - both for me as the reader and for my seven-year-old who said "Why can't she just SHUT UP and listen?" Hmm. My sentiments, too.

The child was no longer interested after Chapter 4, so I continued the story myself and I can't say my opinion of it improved much. It was very "American" with very little of fairy 'softness' about it - the head fairy was a strident leader of a hierarchical fairy structure; the "baddie" had no redeaming features and the heroine was MUCH too nice, her only apparant failing being eavesdropping on her parents and treating them as if she was the adult and they the children.

I found it an unsattisfactory read with shallow, single-aspect characters. I'm sure this is not necessary in a children's book aimed at pre-teens. To my mind, if a child was old enough to read this for themselves, then complex characters and plots are certainly not beyond them.

I bought this to read to a group of friends children. They absolutely loved me reading it and several then asked their parents if they would buy them their own copies.

Celia is an only child and is delighted when her Grandmother comes to live with her and her family. Her Grandmother tells her that when she was her age, she had helped a Fairy who was in mortal danger and had been rewarded by being given a silver flute. At first Celia is very sceptical about her Grandmother's story but then one night she also answers a call from Mira the same Fairy who years ago had contacted her Granny. Mira tells her that something very bad is going to happen and that only she will be able to stop it. This appears to be a hard task for one little girl but she resolves to try and sort out whatever problem it is that is coming.

Paul is her friend who lives next door and he has an Aunt who owns a toy empire and is ruthless in what she wants and how she gets it.........Celia's Father on the other hand also owns a Toy Shop which is lovingly family run and all the toys are made by hand and on site. Vicky, the Aunt in question wants to buy out the toy shop and will stop at nothing to get her hands on it, stooping really low to get what she wants. This is where Celia comes in but first she must find the missing half of the magic flute for without it she will not be able to help.

This was a great little book with enough excitement in it to keep 6 children quiet for long stretches at a time. I also admit to liking it and I'm hardly a child.

This is no doubt a good little book. I enjoyed it and I am sure that kids will, too. Celia is named after her grandmother who once encountered fairies in the woods behind the house and one day she comes to live with Celia and her family. Once this happens the world of fairies comes alive once more and Celia (the younger)is there to help them in their own world and hers, too. The influence that fairies have on the human mind and thoughts is a new twist, even though it is what believers in faeries are sure happens. Celia sets about helping her parents and their business and to stop the taken over of their business by the ruthless Vicky McClutchy. All in all it is fairly well written and very easy to read. There are deeper meanings about love, loyalty, friendship and the greedy capitalist society, but whether young children grasp this or just enjoy this tale remain to be seen. I won't do a spoiler, as that isn't right.

I'd have given it a higher rating if it had been fuller and less 'frenetic' in style.

i am aware im way above the age range for this book but i loved it, within minutes i had lost myself in the story and could not stop reading !!! my niece is now reading this book with her mum and is loving it and cannot wait for each night to come around for the next chapter.it may appeal to boys but im sure its really aimed at young girls who enjoy loosing themselves in a fantasy world which we would all love to be real. i wont go into what happens as this would spoil it for you but the main idea behind the story is a young girl who enjoys her grandma moving in as they share not only a name but a love of stories. the only thing is mum and dad say to pay no attention but grandma seems to be so convinced its all true and happened to her in the very same bedrooom she now has !!!thats all i will tell you, but trust me if a grown adult cant put it down im pretty sure your fairy loving little lady will adore this

Really enjoyed this book almost wanted to go back to my childhood to see if there are fairies in the bottom of my garden would highly reccomend it to anyone very enthralling couldnt put it down once I started reading brought out my inner child not that I ever grew up in the first place

A lovely book however a bit too young for me however I plan to let my niece read this when she is a little bit older as it is a lovely story. The story is all about Celia and how she discovers there are fairies living in the woods behind her house once her Gran comes to stay with them (her Gran is also called Celia). Celia has to try and get back a necklace from her next door neighbours aunt Vicky McClutchy as she stole the necklace ornament from Celia's dad back when they were little. Celia also has to try to find a way to stop the highway being built through where their house now stands and also through the woods in order to save the fairies and save her home - a big ask for a little girl and an impossible mission?A lovely story which is most definitely aimed at girls between 9 and 12 years old due to its clear and simplistic (but lovely) writing.